Our trip to Joshua Tree National Park continued with another great day yesterday. After our lunch at the 29 Palms Inn we drove through the park over to the South side. The park changes dramatically from North to South side. You go from high desert to low desert, the geology changes, and the plants are totally different.
Near the South entrance to the park we stopped at Cottonwood Oasis for a short hike. Here's the oasis.
Here's the view back towards the entrance just over a half mile into the hike.
And here's the view looking away from the entrance. That's the Salton Sea. We got a great view by climbing up one particularly steep rock encropment (although we decided not to climb to the top of Mamouth Peak... just call us lazy but the steep incline wasn't what our post lunch bodies wanted to try).
All great views... very different from yesterday's hikes. And the weather... also quite different. I started the hike with all my layers and very quickly had to peel down. While the wind was still blowing, it was definitely much tamer and the temps were considerably warmer in the low desert.
One of the great benefits of this break, other than the relaxation, great company, and great views, was the progress made towards my 100 miles by April 1 goal. 2 miles on Friday, a 1.5-2 mile hike on Saturday, and then a 1.3 mile walk with the Sterling (who was quite glad to see us home) this morning.
100 miles here I come!
2 comments:
Great places to go! Looking at the ticker tape, makes it look like you're way ahead of schedule! Only the 7th & you're a tenth of the way already!
We also love JT. Maybe we need to go to the beach for once but we keep heading back to the desert.
It was great meeting you tonight and I hope you'll be able to make it to more knit groups this semester!
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